MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1925

The Modern Library series was founded in May 1917 by Boni & Liveright, a new publishing firm that was created to publish the Modern Library. The series was conceived by Albert Boni, a twenty-five year old Greenwich Village bookseller and occasional publisher. The Modern Library was founded at a time when the United Stated was undergoing an intense cultural upheaval. Boni was in the thick of the cultural upheaval. His Washington Square Bookshop was a favorite gathering place for Village artists and intellectuals. He was one of the founders of the Washington Square Players. As publisher of The Glebe, a little magazine edited by Alfred Kreymborg, he was already active in promoting translations of modern European writers—much to the dismay of Kreymborg, who was interested mainly in discovering and nurturing unknown Americans.

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• WILLIAM BEEBE. JUNGLE PEACE. 1925 – 1940. (ML 30)
  • First printing (1925)
• ALEXANDRE DUMAS, fils . CAMILLE. 1925–1970. (ML 69)
  • First printing (1925)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• W. S. GILBERT. H.M.S. PINAFORE AND OTHER PLAYS. 1925 – 1937. (ML 113)
  • First printing (1925)
  • Title page reset (1925)
• WILLIAM JAMES. THE PHILOSOPHY OF WILLIAM JAMES. 1925 – 1969. (ML 114)
  • First printing (1925)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1926

Cerf and Klopfer did not discontinue any Modern Library titles in 1926 and added twelve new titles to the series, bringing the total number of active titles to 125. One of the additions was Beerbohm, Zuleika Dobson, which had been in the Boni & Liveright series between 1918 and 1922. Zuleika Dobson may have been withdrawn from the series by Dodd, Mead & Co., which made a new printing of its own in 1924. Two years later Cerf and Klopfer were able to restore it to the series. All families of printings of Zuleika Dobson in the ML, including those between 1926 and 1970 (36c‑d), are described in the chapter for 1918.

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• EMILY BRONTË. WUTHERING HEIGHTS. 1926–1969; 1978– . (ML 106)
• SHERWOOD ANDERSON. POOR WHITE. 1926–1939. (ML 115)
  • First printing (1926)
• OSCAR WILDE. DE PROFUNDIS. 1926–1934. (ML 117)
  • First printing (1926)
• GABRIELE D’ANNUNZIO. THE MAIDENS OF THE ROCKS. 1926–1928. (ML 118)
  • First printing (1926)
• HERMAN MELVILLE. MOBY DICK. 1926–1976. (ML 119)
  • First printing (1926)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Howard introduction added (1950)
  • Title-page device reset (1968/69)
• REMY DE GOURMONT. A NIGHT IN THE LUXEMBOURG. 1926–1932. (ML 120)
  • First printing (1926)
• THOMAS HARDY. THE RETURN OF THE NATIVE. 1926–1970. (ML 121)
  • First printing (1926)
  • Title page reset (1927)
  • Preliminaries repaginated; printed from duplicate set of plates (1929)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• DANIEL DEFOE. MOLL FLANDERS. 1926–1970; 1985–1991. (ML 122)
• LUDWIG LEWISOHN. UP STREAM. 1926–1939. (ML 123)
  • First printing (1926)
  • Third printing (1928)
  • Fourth printing (1929)
• JAMES JOYCE. DUBLINERS. 1926– . (ML 124)
• GEORGE GISSING. NEW GRUB STREET. 1926–1943; 1985. (ML 125)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1927

Cerf and Klopfer created Random House as a subsidiary of the Modern Library, Inc., to create and distribute “books of typographic excellence in America” (announcement on Random House letterhead with Rockwell Kent’s newly designed device of a ramshackle house, 24 January 1927). The letter to booksellers appears to be the first time Kent’s device was used. The second appearance was probably Random House’s “Announcement Number One” in February 1927 of seven limited editions from Nonesuch Press (reproduced in Cerf, At Random, p. 66). The officers of the new venture were Cerf, Klopfer, and Elmer Adler of the Pynson Printers. Random House became the exclusive American distributor for books published by Francis Meynell’s Nonesuch Press and the Golden Cockerel Press, the most important English private presses.

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• JAMES BRANCH CABELL. THE CREAM OF THE JEST. 1927–1939. (ML 126)
  • First printing (1927)
• BENVENUTO CELLINI. AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENVENUTO CELLINI. 1927–1970; 1985–1991. (ML 3; 150)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Reissue format (1985)
• NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE. THE SCARLET LETTER. 1927–1971. (ML 93)
• W. H. HUDSON. THE PURPLE LAND. 1927–1949. (ML 24)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
• FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE. ECCE HOMO & THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY. 1927–1936. (ML 68)
  • First printing (1927)
• SPINOZA. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SPINOZA. 1927–1971. (ML 60)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (1941)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• CONRAD AIKEN, ed. MODERN AMERICAN POETS. 1927–1940. MODERN AMERICAN POETRY. 1940–1945. TWENTIETH-CENTURY AMERICAN POETRY. 1945– . (ML 127)
• D. H. LAWRENCE. THE RAINBOW. 1927–1971; 1980–1990. (ML 128)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1980)
• GEORGE DOUGLAS BROWN. THE HOUSE WITH THE GREEN SHUTTERS. 1927–1930. (ML 129)
  • First printing, trade issue (1927)
  • First printing, presentation issue (1927)
• LAFCADIO HEARN. SOME CHINESE GHOSTS. 1927–1938. (ML 130)
• REMY DE GOURMONT. A VIRGIN HEART. 1927–1932. (ML 131)
  • First printing (1927)
• OLIVE SCHREINER. THE STORY OF AN AFRICAN FARM. 1927–1942. (ML 132)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (1941)
• AMBROSE BIERCE. IN THE MIDST OF LIFE. 1927–1957. (ML 133)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• GEORGE MEREDITH. THE ORDEAL OF RICHARD FEVEREL. 1927–1970. (ML 134)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Stevenson introduction added (1950)
• THOMAS HARDY. JUDE THE OBSCURE. 1927–1990. (ML 135)
• SAMUEL BUTLER. EREWHON. 1927–1932. EREWHON <span class="smallcaps">and</span> EREWHON REVISITED. 1933–1970. (ML 136)
  • First printing (1927)
  • *Erewhon Revised* added (1933)
  • Title page reset (1941)
• BERTRAND RUSSELL. SELECTED PAPERS OF BERTRAND RUSSELL. 1927–1970. (ML 137)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• EDGAR SALTUS. THE IMPERIAL ORGY. 1927–1932. (ML 139)
  • First printing (1927)
• ERNEST RENAN. THE LIFE OF JESUS. 1927–1969. (ML 140)
  • First printing (1927)
  • Title page reset (1941)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1928

Boni & Liveright, Inc., became Horace Liveright, Inc., on 28 May. Boni had left the firm nearly nine years earlier, in July 1919.

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• NORMAN DOUGLAS. OLD CALABRIA. 1928–1935. (ML 141)
• EMILE ZOLA. NANA. 1928–1970. (ML 142)
• H. M. TOMLINSON. THE SEA AND THE JUNGLE. 1928–1950. (ML 99)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
• ALEXANDRE DUMAS. THE THREE MUSKETEERS. 1928–1970. (ML 143)
• DMITRI MEREJKOWSKI. THE ROMANCE OF LEONARDO DA VINCI. 1928–1970. (ML 138)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• VINCENT STARRETT, ed<span class="smallcaps">.</span> FOURTEEN GREAT DETECTIVE STORIES. 1928–1949. (ML 144)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• JAMES JOYCE. A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS A YOUNG MAN. 1928–1956. (ML 145)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
• EUGENE O’NEILL. THE EMPEROR JONES; THE STRAW. 1928–1936. (ML 146)
  • First printing (1928)
• THEODORE DREISER. TWELVE MEN. 1928–1934. (ML 148)
  • First printing (1928)
• GERHART HAUPTMANN. THE HERETIC OF SOANA. 1928–1931. (ML 149)
• ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL. THE ART OF WHISTLER. 1928–1936. (ML 150)
  • First printing (1928)
• FRANÇOIS RABELAIS. GARGANTUA AND PANTAGRUEL. 1928–1944. (ML 4)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• ANATOLE FRANCE. THE REVOLT OF THE ANGELS. 1928–1938. (ML 11)
  • First printing (1928)
• JOHN ADDINGTON SYMONDS. THE LIFE OF MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI. 1928–1970. (ML 49)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SCHOPENHAUER. 1928–1970. (ML 52)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• MARCEL PROUST. SWANN’S WAY. 1928–1971; 1977–1982. (ML 59)
• APULEIUS. THE GOLDEN ASS OF APULEIUS. 1928–1937. (ML 88)
  • First printing (1928)
• VIRGINIA WOOLF. MRS. DALLOWAY. 1928–1949. (ML 96)
  • First printing (1928)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1929

With a few exceptions such as Villon, Poems (55) and Passages from the Diary of Samuel Pepys (89), the Boni & Liveright series remained true to its name and limited its scope to modern works. Cerf and Klopfer increased the number of older works, but they did so slowly. They added Defoe, Moll Flanders (127) in 1926 and The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini (132) the following year. Momentum began to increase in 1928 when Apuleius, Golden Ass (167), Sterne, Tristram Shandy (158), and Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (162) were added. Five ML titles published in 1929 were older classics: Petronius, Satyricon (156), Smollett, Expedition of Humphry Clinker (159), Chaucer, Canterbury Tales (161), and Homer’s Iliad (166) and Odyssey (167). Several of these works had been targets of censorship groups such as the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice, which was sufficient to redeem them in the eyes of the shallowest modernist.

[more]

• CONRAD AIKEN, ed. AMERICAN POETRY 1671–1928. 1929–1944. A COMPREHENSIVE ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN POETRY. 1945–78. (ML 101)
• GUSTAVE FLAUBERT. SALAMMBÔ. 1929–1934. (ML 118)
• FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY. THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV. 1929–1971. (ML 151)
• GARDNER MURPHY, ed. AN OUTLINE OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY. 1929–1954. GARDNER MURPHY and ARTHUR J. BACHRACH, eds. AN OUTLINE OF ABNORMAL PSYCHOLOGY. Rev. ed. 1954–1970. (ML 152)
• DMITRI MEREJKOWSKI. THE DEATH OF THE GODS. 1929–1940. (ML 153)
  • First printing (1929)
• EDMOND ROSTAND. CYRANO DE BERGERAC. 1929–1973. (ML 154)
• THORNTON WILDER. THE CABALA. 1929–1937. ML 155)
  • First printing (1929)
• PETRONIUS. THE SATYRICON. 1929–1957. (ML 156)
  • First printing (1929)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
• STENDHAL. THE RED AND THE BLACK. 1929–1973; 1984– . (ML 157)
  • First printing (1929)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1984)
• PAUL LANDIS, ed. FOUR FAMOUS GREEK PLAYS. 1929–1950. (ML 158)
  • First printing (1929)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
• TOBIAS SMOLLETT. THE EXPEDITION OF HUMPHRY CLINKER. 1929–1970. (ML 159)
  • First printing (1929)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• HAVELOCK ELLIS. THE DANCE OF LIFE. 1929–1958. (ML 160)
• GEOFFREY CHAUCER. THE CANTERBURY TALES. 1929–1971. (ML 161)
• HERMANN SUDERMANN. THE SONG OF SONGS. 1929–1941. (ML 162)
  • First printing (1929)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• V. F. CALVERTON, ed. ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN NEGRO LITERATURE. 1929–1944. (ML 163)
  • Second printing** **(1930)
  • Title page reset (1941)
• CARL VAN VECHTEN. PETER WHIFFLE. 1929–1935. (ML 164)
  • First printing (1929)
• JACQUES CASANOVA. THE MEMOIRS OF JACQUES CASANOVA. 1929–1970. (ML 165)
  • First printing (1929)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• HOMER. THE ILIAD. 1929–1982. (ML 166)
• HOMER. THE ODYSSEY. 1929–1971. (ML 167)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1930

The Modern Library’s purchase of the Sun Dial Library from Garden City Publishing Co., the Doubleday, Doran subsidiary that specialized in hard-cover reprints, was announced on 4 April. The Sun Dial Library had been in existence since 1923 and was a reprint series of modern literary works similar in format and scope to the Modern Library. In 1930 it included fifty-three titles that sold for one dollar a copy. The Sun Dial Library had never been a strong rival, but it was the only American series that competed with the Modern Library to any extent and Cerf regarded it as potentially dangerous (Cerf to James L. Crowder, 2 April 1930).

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• GRANT OVERTON, ed. GREAT MODERN SHORT STORIES. 1930–1943. (ML 168)
  • First printing (1930)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• HENRY JAMES. THE TURN OF THE SCREW; THE LESSON OF THE MASTER. 1930–1971. (ML 169)
  • First printing (1930)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• ERNEST HEMINGWAY. THE SUN ALSO RISES. 1930–1953. (ML 170)
• LEO TOLSTOY. ANNA KARENINA. 1930–1973. (ML 37)
• JAMES HUNEKER. PAINTED VEILS. 1930–1942. (ML 43)
  • First printing (1930)
  • Title page reset (1941)
• ANTON TCHEKOV. THE PLAYS OF ANTON TCHEKOV. 1930–1956. (ML 171)
  • First printing (1930)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• MARCEL PROUST. WITHIN A BUDDING GROVE. 1930–1970. (ML 172)
  • First printing (1930)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• JOHN DEWEY. HUMAN NATURE AND CONDUCT. 1930–1986. (ML 173)
• MANUEL KOMROFF, ed<span class="smallcaps">.</span> ORIENTAL ROMANCES. 1930–1935. (ML 55)
  • First printing (1930)
• MIGUEL DE CERVANTES. DON QUIXOTE. 1930–1971. (ML 174)
• H. L. MENCKEN. SELECTED PREJUDICES. 1930–1935. (ML 107)
  • First printing (1930)
• W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM. OF HUMAN BONDAGE. 1930– . (ML 176)
• JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE. FAUST. 1930–1973. (ML 177)
• HUGH WALPOLE. FORTITUDE. 1930–1971. (ML 178)
• G. F. YOUNG. THE MEDICI. 1930–1971. (ML 179)
• ALDOUS HUXLEY. POINT COUNTER POINT. 1930–1967. (ML 180)
• PLATO. THE WORKS OF PLATO. 1930– . (ML 181)
• ROCKWELL KENT. WILDERNESS. 1930–1939. (ML 182)
• J. K. HUYSMANS. AGAINST THE GRAIN. 1930–1937. (ML 183)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1931

It took more than two years for the economy to decline to its lowest levels after the stock market crash of 1929. Modern Library sales fluctuated as the economy declined, but on the whole the series appears to have been well suited to the Depression book market. Few mainstream books sold for less than the ML’s retail price of 95 cents. Annual ML sales passed the million copy mark for the first time in 1930; sales for September 1931 were the best of any month in the Modern Library’s history up to that time (Cerf, “The Modern Library and the Price of Books,” PW, 7 December 1929, p. 2665; PW, 10 October 1931, p. 1649).

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• ARNOLD BENNETT. THE OLD WIVES’ TALE. 1931 – 1972. (ML 184)
• HENRY FIELDING. THE HISTORY OF TOM JONES. 1931–1971; 1985– . (ML 185)
• GIOVANNI BOCCACCIO. THE DECAMERON. 1931–1972. (ML 71)
• JOSEPH CONRAD. LORD JIM. 1931–1973. (ML 186)
• HENRY ADAMS. THE EDUCATION OF HENRY ADAMS. 1931–1978. (ML 76)
  • Offset printing; 7½ inch format (1970)
• JONATHAN SWIFT. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS, A TALE OF A TUB, THE BATTLE OF THE BOOKS. 1931–1957. (ML 100)
  • First printing (1931)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Heilman introduction added (1950)
• CHRISTOPHER MORLEY. PARNASSUS ON WHEELS. 1931–1954. (ML 190)
• KATHERINE MANSFIELD. THE GARDEN PARTY. 1931–1955. (ML 129)
• V. F. CALVERTON, ed. THE MAKING OF MAN. 1931–1970. (ML 149)
• ANDRÉ GIDE. THE COUNTERFEITERS. 1931–1946. (ML 187). THE COUNTERFEITERS with JOURNAL OF THE COUNTERFEITERS. 1962– . (ML 327)
• SUETONIUS. THE LIVES OF THE TWELVE CAESARS. 1931–1970. (ML 188)
• MICHAEL ARTZIBASHEV. SANINE. 1931–1935. (ML 189)
• WILLA CATHER. DEATH COMES FOR THE ARCHBISHOP. 1931–1937; 1984– . (ML 191)
• FREDERICK BARON CORVO. A HISTORY OF THE BORGIAS. 1931 – 1959. (ML 192)
• HONORÉ DE BALZAC. DROLL STORIES. 1931–1970. (ML 193)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• PIERRE CORNEILLE and JEAN RACINE. SIX PLAYS. 1931–1971. (ML 194)
• WILLIAM M<span class="smallcaps">c</span>FEE. CASUALS OF THE SEA. 1931–1953. (ML 195)
• MARCO POLO. THE TRAVELS OF MARCO POLO. 1931–1970. (ML 196)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• H. G. WELLS. TONO-BUNGAY. 1931–1970. (ML 197)
• JOHN FRANCIS M<span class="smallcaps">c</span>DERMOTT, ed. THE SEX PROBLEM IN MODERN SOCIETY. 1931–1954. (ML 198)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• DMITRI MEREJKOWSKI. PETER AND ALEXIS. 1931–1940. (ML 175)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1932

Elmer Adler, who had been a director of Random House since the imprint was created in 1927 to distribute and publish fine limited editions, resigned in 1932. Thereafter he devoted himself exclusively to his fine printing business, Pynson Printers, and to The Colophon, the bibliophilic quarterly which he published from 1930 to 1940. Random House was reorganized—still as a subsidiary of The Modern Library, Inc.—with Cerf and Klopfer as sole directors. It was not until 1933, following the bankruptcy of Liveright, Inc., that Cerf and Klopfer turned seriously to trade publishing.

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• FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY. CRIME AND PUNISHMENT. 1932– . (ML 199)
• THOMAS MANN. THE MAGIC MOUNTAIN. 1932–1938. (ML 200)229. First printing (1932) \[within double rules\] THE | MAGIC MOUNTAIN | \[rule\] | BY | THOMAS MANN | \[rule\] | TRANSLATED BY | H. T. LOWE-PORTER | \[rule\] | \[torchbearer A2\] | \[rule\] | BENNETT A. CERF · DONALD S. KLOPFER | THE MODERN LIBRARY | NEW YORKPp. \[ 12 \], \[1–2\] 3–900. \[1–28\]¹⁶ \[29\]⁸\[ 1 \] half title; \[ 2 \] pub. note D12; \[ 3 \] title; \[ 4 \] Copyright, 1927, by ALFRED A. KNOPF, INC. | Copyright, 1924, by S. FISCHER VERLAG | \[short double rule\] | First Modern Library Edition | 1932; \[ 5 \] TRANSLATOR’S NOTE signed: H. T. L.-P.; \[ 6 \] blank; \[ 7 – 9 \] CONTENTS; \[ 10 \] blank; \[ 11 – 12 \] FOREWORD; \[1\] part title: CHAPTER I; \[2\] blank; 3–900 text. Jacket: Pictorial in moderate greenish blue (173) and deep blue (179) on cream paper with inset illustration of Thomas Mann in front of a mountain; borders in moderate greenish blue, lettering in deep blue. Signed: C. ( Fall 1931 )
• THEODORE DREISER. SISTER CARRIE. 1932–1971. (ML 8)230a. First printing (1932) \[within double rules\] SISTER CARRIE | \[rule\] | BY | THEODORE DREISER | \[rule\] | WITH A NEW FOREWORD BY THE AUTHOR | \[rule\] | \[torchbearer A2\] | \[rule\] | BENNETT A. CERF · DONALD S. KLOPFER | THE MODERN LIBRARY | NEW YORKPp. \[i–iv\] v–vii \[viii\], \[ 2 \], \[1\] 2–557 \[558–566\]. \[1–18\]¹⁶ 6⅞ x 4⅜ in. (175 x 110 mm)
• BRAM STOKER. DRACULA. 1932–1990. (ML 31)231a. First printing (1932) \[within double rules\] DRACULA | \[rule\] | BY | BRAM STOKER | \[rule\] | \[torchbearer A2\] | \[rule\] | BENNETT A. CERF · DONALD S. KLOPFER | THE MODERN LIBRARY | NEW YORKPp. \[ 2 \], \[i–vii\] viii–ix \[x\], \[ 2 \], 1–418. \[1–13\]¹⁶ \[14\]⁸\[ 1 \] half title; \[ 2 \] pub. note D12; \[i\] title; \[ii\] Copyright, 1897, by BRAM STOKER | \[short double rule\] | First Modern Library Edition | 1932; \[iii\] dedication; \[iv\] blank; \[v\] note; \[vi\] blank; \[vii\]–ix CONTENTS; \[x\] blank; \[ 1 \] fly title; \[ 2 \] blank; 1–418 text. Jacket: Pictorial in strong red (12) and black on brilliant yellow paper depicting Dracula in top hat, bat-like cape and cane; borders and title in strong red, other lettering in black; adapted from the Sun Dial Library jacket. ( Spring 1932 ) Note: The 231a jacket is one of most ML’s most striking jackets of the balloon cloth era. The image of Dracula is from the Sun Dial Library jacket; the lettering and brilliant yellow background are original to the ML. Designer unknown.
  • Reissue format (1978)
• ANTON CHEKHOV. THE STORIES OF ANTON TCHEKOV. 1932–1956. THE STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV. 1957–1963. THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON CHEKHOV. 1964– . (ML 50)232a. First printing (1932) \[within double rules\] THE STORIES OF | ANTON TCHEKOV | \[rule\] | EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION, BY | ROBERT N. LINSCOTT | \[rule\] | \[torchbearer A2\] | \[rule\] | BENNETT A. CERF · DONALD S. KLOPFER | THE MODERN LIBRARY | NEW YORKPp. \[i–vi\] vii–x, 1–437 \[438\]. \[1–14\]¹⁶\[i\] half title; \[ii\] pub. note D12; \[iii\] title; \[iv\] Copyright, 1932, by THE MODERN LIBRARY, INC. | \[short double rule\] | First Modern Library Edition | 1932; \[v\] acknowledgment; \[vi\] blank; vii CONTENTS; \[viii\] blank; ix–x introduction headed: ANTON TCHEKOV | 1860–1904 signed p. x: <span class="smallcaps">Robert Linscott</span>. | <span class="smallcaps">Boston, Mass</span>. | <span class="smallcaps">S</span>eptember, 1931; 1–437 text; \[438\] blank. Contents: A Day in the Country, translated by Constance Garnett – Old Age, translated by S. Koteliansky and J. M. Murry – Kashtanka, translated by Constance Garnett – Enemies, translated by S. Koteliansky and J. M. Murry – On the Way, translated by R. E. C. Long – Vanka, translated by Adeline Lister Kaye – La Cigale, translated by R. E. C. Long – Grief, translated by Adeline Lister Kaye – An Inadvertence, translated by Constance Garnett – The Black Monk, translated by R. E. C. Long – The Kiss, translated by R. E. C. Long – In Exile – A Work of Art – Dreams, translated by Marian Fell – A Woman’s Kingdom, translated by Constance Garnett – The Doctor, translated by Constance Garnett – A Trifling Occurrence, translated by S. Koteliansky and J. M. Murry – The Hollow, translated by Adeline Lister Kaye – After the Theatre, translated by S. Koteliansky and J. M. Murry – The Runaway, translated by R. E. C. Long – Vierochka, translated by R. E. C. Long – The Steppe, translated by Adeline Lister Kaye. Jacket: Uniform typographic jacket D. Jacket title: THE SHORT STORIES OF ANTON TCHEKOV. ( Fall 1931 )
• WILLIAM FAULKNER. SANCTUARY. 1932–1971. (ML 61)
• THOMAS HARDY. TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES. 1932–1971; 1979–1986. (ML 72)
• HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. THE POEMS OF LONGFELLOW. 1932–1945. THE POEMS OF HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW. 1945– . (ML 56)
• BENJAMIN FRANKLIN. THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN AND SELECTIONS FROM HIS OTHER WRITINGS. 1932–1971. (ML 39)
• ERNEST HEMINGWAY. A FAREWELL TO ARMS. 1932–1953. (ML 19)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• JOSEPH CONRAD. VICTORY. 1932–1971. (ML 34)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• RICHARD HUGHES. A HIGH WIND IN JAMAICA. 1932–1957. (ML 112)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• EIGHT FAMOUS ELIZABETHAN PLAYS. 1932–1969. (ML 94)
• OSCAR WILDE. THE PLAYS OF OSCAR WILDE. 1932–1971; 1980– . (ML 83)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1980)
• OSCAR WILDE. THE POEMS AND FAIRY TALES OF OSCAR WILDE. 1932–1970. (ML 84)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• GUY DE MAUPASSANT. THE SHORT STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT. 1932–1939. THE BEST STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT. 1940–1945. (ML 98)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title changed; title page reset (1940)
• THE ARABIAN NIGHTS’ ENTERTAINMENTS. 1932– . (ML 201)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• ALEXANDRE KUPRIN. YAMA. 1932–1952. (ML 203)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• KARL MARX. CAPITAL, THE COMMUNIST MANIFESTO AND OTHER WRITINGS. 1932– . (ML 202)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Title page reset; offset printing (1965)
• CHARLES DICKENS. THE POSTHUMOUS PAPERS OF THE PICKWICK CLUB. 1932–1970. (ML 204)
• JOHN DOS PASSOS. THREE SOLDIERS. 1932–1963. (ML 205)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• LION FEUCHTWANGER. POWER. 1932–1945. (ML 206)
  • First printing (1932)
  • Title page reset (1941)
• GEORGE DU MAURIER. PETER IBBETSON. 1932–1956. (ML 207)
• DANTE ALIGHIERI. THE DIVINE COMEDY. 1932–1971. (ML 208)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1933

Publishers’ Weekly reported that the Modern Library’s best-selling books for 1933 showed “a distinct change in the trend of interest of readers. For the first time in years none of the so-called sex titles, like ‘Droll Stories’ or ‘The Decameron,’ was on the list. Most interesting was the popularity of ‘Selected Writings of Karl Marx,’ edited by Max Eastman, which sold for months like a new novel and is still selling at the rate of 200 copies a week.” The ten best sellers for the year were: Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms, Faulkner, Sanctuary, Marx, Capital, The Communist Manifesto and Other Writings, Lawrence, Sons and Lovers, Maugham, Of Human Bondage, Mann, The Magic Mountain, Merejkowski, The Romance of Leonardo da Vinci, Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov, Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop, and Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac (“Modern Library Best Sellers,” PW, 13 January 1934, p. 148).

[more]

• ALDOUS HUXLEY. ANTIC HAY. 1933– . (ML 209)
• ANATOLE FRANCE. PENGUIN ISLAND. 1933–1970; 1984– . (ML 210)
  • First printing (1933)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Reissue format (1984)
• SINCLAIR LEWIS. ARROWSMITH. 1933–1952. (ML 42)
• EMIL LUDWIG. NAPOLEON. 1933–1970. (ML 95)
  • First printing (1933)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• BENNETT A. CERF, ed<span class="smallcaps">.</span> GREAT GERMAN SHORT NOVELS AND STORIES. 1933–1952. (ML 108)
  • First printing (1933)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• PIERRE LOUŸS. APHRODITE. 1933–1970. (ML 77)
  • First printing (1933)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. VANITY FAIR. 1933–1970. (ML 131)
• EVELYN WAUGH. VILE BODIES. 1933–1940. (ML 120)
  • First printing (1933)
• CHARLOTTE BRONTË. JANE EYRE. 1933– . (ML 64)
• GERTRUDE STEIN. THREE LIVES. 1933–1940. (ML 211)
  • First printing (1933)
• LEW WALLACE. BEN-HUR. 1933–1940. (ML 139)
  • First printing (1933)
• LYTTON STRACHEY. EMINENT VICTORIANS. 1933–1970. (ML 212)
  • First printing (1933)
  • Title page reset (1939)
• MARCEL PROUST. THE GUERMANTES WAY. 1933–1970. (ML 213)
  • First printing (1933)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1934

Cerf and Klopfer published the first authorized American edition of James Joyce’s Ulysses in January 1934. The book appeared under the Random House imprint, but the U.S. copyright was registered under The Modern Library, Inc., which at this point was still the legal name of the firm. Before 1934 many American visitors to Paris brought back copies of the original edition published in 1922 by Shakespeare and Company, the Paris bookshop established by the American expatriate Sylvia Beach. Ulysses was officially banned in the United States and tourists returning to the U.S. ran the risk of having it confiscated at customs.

[more]

• E. E. CUMMINGS. THE ENORMOUS ROOM. 1934–1990. (ML 214)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1977)
• PEARL S. BUCK. THE GOOD EARTH. 1934–1970. (ML 2; ML 15)
• DASHIELL HAMMETT. THE MALTESE FALCON. 1934–1949. (ML 45)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• ERSKINE CALDWELL. GOD’S LITTLE ACRE. 1934–1970. (ML 51)
• CHARLES DICKENS. DAVID COPPERFIELD. 1934–1971. (ML 110)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Brown introduction added (1950)
  • Title page reset; offset printing (1966)
• THUCYDIDES. THE COMPLETE WRITINGS OF THUCYDIDES. 1934–1971. (ML 58)
• JAMES BRANCH CABELL. JURGEN. 1934–1943. (ML 15)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• FRANK NORRIS. THE PIT. 1934–1940. (ML 92)
• F. SCOTT FITZGERALD. THE GREAT GATSBY . 1934–1938. (ML 117)
• THORSTEIN VEBLEN. THE THEORY OF THE LEISURE CLASS. 1934–1970. (ML 63)
• DUBOSE HEYWARD. PORGY. 1934–1940. (ML 148)
• LOUIS HÉMON. MARIA CHAPDELAINE. 1934–1950. (ML 10)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• VIRGIL. VIRGIL’S WORKS. 1934–1969. (ML 75)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • McDermott introduction added (1950)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1935

A growing number of trade books were published under the Random House imprint. Works by American authors included Clifford Odets, Three Plays, Robinson Jeffers, Solstice and Other Poems, Gertrude Stein, Lectures in America, and The Pulitzer Prize Plays, 1918–1934, edited by Kathryn Coe and William H. Cordell. British and Irish authors were represented by C. Day Lewis, Collected Poems, 1929–1933 and The Complete Works of John M. Synge. Nonfiction included Emile Burns, A Handbook of Marxism and Oswald Jacoby and others, The Four Aces System of Contract Bridge. Other books included Dostoyevsky, The Idiot with illustrations by Boardman Robinson, which was reprinted in ML Giants in 1942.

[more]

• LOUIS KRONENBERGER, ed<span class="smallcaps">.</span> AN ANTHOLOGY OF LIGHT VERSE. 1935–1956. (ML 48)
  • First printing (1935)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• KNUT HAMSUN. GROWTH OF THE SOIL. 1935–1951. (ML 12)
  • First printing (1935)
  • Title page reset (c.1940)
• JOHN REED. TEN DAYS THAT SHOOK THE WORLD. 1935–1970. (ML 215)
• ELIZABETH MADOX ROBERTS. THE TIME OF MAN. 1935 – 1938. (ML 54)
  • First printing (1935)
• ROBINSON JEFFERS. ROAN STALLION, TAMAR AND OTHER POEMS. 1935 – 1959. (ML 118)
  • First printing (1935)
  • Title page reset (c.1940)
• W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM. THE MOON AND SIXPENCE. 1935 – 1971. (ML 27)
• CHARLES DICKENS. A TALE OF TWO CITIES. 1935 – 1971. (ML 189)
  • First printing (1935)
  • Title page reset (c.1940)
  • Wagenknecht introduction added (1950)
• THOMAS MANN. BUDDENBROOKS. 1935 – 1940. (ML 57)
  • First printing (1935)
• EDNA FERBER. SHOW BOAT. 1935 – 1940. (ML 35)
  • First printing (1935)
• A. EDWARD NEWTON. THE AMENITIES OF BOOK-COLLECTING. 1935 – 1940. (ML 164)
  • First printing (1935)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1936

The most important step in Random House’s growth as a trade publisher came in 1936 when Cerf and Klopfer acquired the publishing firm Harrison Smith and Robert K. Haas. Smith and Haas had been in business for just over five years, but both men had solid experience in publishing. Smith had been an editor at Harcourt, Brace & Co., where one of his authors was Sinclair Lewis. Shortly before the Wall Street crash he joined the English publisher Jonathan Cape in establishing the firm Jonathan Cape and Harrison Smith in New York. He left that firm in October 1931 to go into business with Haas, who had been a founder of the Book-of-the-Month Club and served as its president for five years. Smith and Haas published many important books, but the early 1930s was a difficult time to launch a new publishing firm and Smith and Haas remained financially insecure. When Cerf and Klopfer suggested a merger with Random House they agreed. Haas recalled the circumstances as follows:

[more]

• FYODOR DOSTOYEVSKY. THE POSSESSED. 1936–1990. (ML 55)
  • First printing (1936)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Reissue format (1977)
• ELLEN GLASGOW. BARREN GROUND. 1936–1948. (ML 25)
  • First printing (1936)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• NIKOLAI GOGOL. DEAD SOULS. 1936–1971. (ML 40)
• HENRY JAMES. THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY. 1936–1973; 1983– . (ML 107)
• ANTHONY TROLLOPE. THE WARDEN & BARCHESTER TOWERS. 1936–1940. BARCHESTER TOWERS & THE WARDEN. 1940–1971. (ML 41)
  • First printing (1936)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Hatcher introduction added (1950)
• HORACE. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF HORACE. 1936–1971. (ML 141)
  • First printing (1936)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Title page reset; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• ANDRÉ MALRAUX. MAN’S FATE. 1936–1973. (ML 33)
  • First printing (1936)
  • Title page reset; letterpress printing (c. 1941)
  • Chevalier introduction dropped (1954)
  • Title page reset; offset printing (1964)
• HENRY HANDEL RICHARDSON. MAURICE GUEST. 1936–1939. (ML 65)
  • First printing (1936)
• WILLIAM JAMES. THE VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. 1936–1969. (ML 70)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Title page reset; offset printing (1966/67)
  • Reissue format (1978)
• WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. THE HISTORY OF HENRY ESMOND, ESQ. 1936–1967. (ML 80)
  • First printing (1936)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Ray introduction added (1950)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1937

Cerf and Klopfer’s acquisition early in 1936 of the publishing firm Harrison Smith and Robert K. Haas and the subsequent change in the legal name of the firm from The Modern Library, Inc. to Random House, Inc. was followed by a surge in trade publishing.

[more]

• STENDHAL. THE CHARTERHOUSE OF PARMA. 1937–1943. (ML 150)
  • First printing (1937)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• EUGENE O’NEILL. THE EMPEROR JONES, ANNA CHRISTIE, THE HAIRY APE. 1937–1971. (ML 146)
  • First printing (1937)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• FERDINAND LUNDBERG. IMPERIAL HEARST. 1937–1941. (ML 81)
• ROBERT GRAVES. I, CLAUDIUS. 1937–1971; 1982– . (ML 20)
• D. H. LAWRENCE. WOMEN IN LOVE. 1937–1990. (ML 68)
• CHARLES READE. THE CLOISTER AND THE HEARTH. 1937–1970. (ML 62)
• JOHN STEINBECK. TORTILLA FLAT. 1937–1971. (ML 216)
• HENRY DAVID THOREAU. WALDEN AND OTHER WRITINGS. 1937– . (ML 155)
• VIRGINIA WOOLF. TO THE LIGHTHOUSE. 1937–1948. (ML 217)
• JOHN DOS PASSOS. THE 42nd PARALLEL. 1937–1940. (ML 88)
• V. F. CALVERTON, ed. THE MAKING OF SOCIETY. 1937–1959. (ML 183)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1938

The spring 1938 RH catalogue was indicative of the growing importance of RH’s trade list. It included Isak Dineson’s Out of Africa, William Faulkner’s Unvanquished, Robert Graves’s Count Belisarius, Edgar Snow’s Red Star Over China, and John Strachey’s What is to be Done? Other titles included The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt in five volumes and The Complete Greek Drama, a two-volume set in the Lifetime Library, a series of mainly ancient classics that began the previous year with The Complete Dialogues of Plato.

[more]

• EDMUND PEARSON. STUDIES IN MURDER. 1938–1950. (ML 113)
• WALTER D. EDMONDS. ROME HAUL. 1938–1945. (ML 191)
• JOHN STEINBECK. OF MICE AND MEN. 1938– . (ML 29)
  • First printing (1938)
  • Title page reset (1940)
  • Reissue format (1979)
• CONFUCIUS. THE WISDOM OF CONFUCIUS. 1938– . (ML 7; ML 306)
• HENRY GEORGE. PROGRESS AND POVERTY. 1938–1970. (ML 36)
  • First printing (1938)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• MARY WEBB. PRECIOUS BANE. 1938–1970. (ML 219)
  • First printing (1938)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• DOROTHY CANFIELD. THE DEEPENING STREAM. 1938–1958. (ML 200)
  • First printing (1938)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• MARCEL PROUST. CITIES OF THE PLAIN. 1938–1970. (ML 220)
  • First printing (1938)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1939

The ML underwent a major change in format and design for the second time in its history. The first, in 1929, substituted balloon cloth bindings for imitation leather and introduced Rockwell Kent’s binding and endpaper designs. (Balloon cloth began to be used in January 1929; Kent’s binding and endpaper designs were introduced in April.) The balloon cloth format suffered from two problems. The semi-flexible balloon cloth bindings were attractive but did not stand up to heavy use. And the 6½ x 4¼ inch (165 x 107 mm) page size, retained from Boni & Liveright days, sometimes made it difficult to print from original publishers’ letterpress plates, most of which were designed for a larger format. Many of the volumes printed from original publishers’ plates had uncomfortably narrow margins. Sometimes the original plates were too large to be used by the ML.

[more]

• IRVING STONE. LUST FOR LIFE. 1939–1970. (ML 11)
  • First printing (1939)
  • Title page reset (c. 1941)
• BASIL HENRY LIDDELL HART. THE WAR IN OUTLINE. 1939–1945. (ML 16)
  • First printing (1939)
  • Title page reset (1941)
• IZAAK WALTON. THE COMPLEAT ANGLER. 1939–1957. (ML 26)
  • First printing (1939)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Keynes’s “Life of Izaak Walton” revised (1949)
• ISAK DINESEN. SEVEN GOTHIC TALES. 1939–1971; 1980– . (ML 54)
• CLIFFORD ODETS. SIX PLAYS OF CLIFFORD ODETS. 1939–1972. (ML 67)
  • First printing (1939)
  • Title page reset (1940)
• JOHN STEINBECK. IN DUBIOUS BATTLE. 1939–1971. (ML 115)
  • First printing (1939)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
• HENRY FIELDING. JOSEPH ANDREWS. 1939–1971. (ML 117)
  • First printing (1939)
  • Title page reset (c. 1940)
  • Title page reset; bibliography added (1950)
• Irving Fineman. Hear, Ye Sons<span class="smallcaps">.</span> 1939–1941. (ML 130)
  • First printing (1939)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1940

By 1940, Cerf and Klopfer had been in charge of the ML for nearly fifteen years. Many titles inherited from Boni & Liveright were discontinued in the 1930s; by 1940, less than a third of the Boni & Liveright titles remained. ML Giants joined the regular ML series in 1931. By spring 1940, regular titles and Giants together numbered 270 titles—two-and-a-half times the size of the series when Cerf and Klopfer acquired it.

[more]

• VINCENT SHEEAN. PERSONAL HISTORY. 1940–1953. (ML 32)
  • First printing (1940)
• JOHN P. MARQUAND. THE LATE GEORGE APLEY. 1940–1970. (ML 182)
  • First printing (1940)
  • Title page reset; offset printing (1966/67)
• GEOFFREY CHAUCER. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 1940–1944. (ML 126)
  • First printing (1940)
• NICCOLÒ MACHIAVELLI. THE PRINCE & THE DISCOURSES. 1940–1973. (ML 65)
  • First printing (1940)
  • Introduction revised; bibliography added (1950)
  • First printing (1940)
• E. M. FORSTER. A PASSAGE TO INDIA. 1940–1948. (ML 218)
• EDGAR J. GOODSPEED and J. M. POWIS SMITH, eds. THE SHORT BIBLE. 1940–1969. (ML 57)
  • First printing (1940)
• C. S. FORESTER. THE AFRICAN QUEEN. 1940– . (ML 102)
  • First printing (1940)
• KATHERINE ANNE PORTER. FLOWERING JUDAS AND OTHER STORIES. 1940–1950; 1953–1970. (ML 88; ML 284)
  • First printing (1940)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• RALPH WALDO EMERSON. THE COMPLETE ESSAYS AND OTHER WRITINGS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 1940–1960. THE SELECTED WRITINGS OF RALPH WALDO EMERSON. 1960– . (ML 91)
  • First printing (1940)
  • McDowell foreword added (1950)
  • Title changed: Selected Writings (1960)
  • Title page reset; offset printing (1968)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Printing from letterpress plates; 7½ inch format (mid-1970s)
  • Reissue format (1977)
• CHRISTOPHER MORLEY. HUMAN BEING. 1940–1945. (ML 74)
  • First printing (1940)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1941

The last title added in 1941, Pascal’s Pensées & The Provincial Letters (345), was published a month before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The next four years would be difficult, as publishers struggled with a huge increase in demand for books coupled with scarcity of resources, including paper rationing, the absence of personnel who served in the armed services, and other dislocations caused by the war. The end of the war in August 1945 was accompanied by rapid inflation and a wave of strikes that disrupted the return to a peacetime economy. It would be September 1948 before the Modern Library could announce, “Every title in the Modern Library and the Modern Library Giants is now back in stock for the first time since the war” (Modern Library advertisement, Publishers’ Weekly, September 17, 1948, p. 1095).

[more]

• WILLIAM SAROYAN. THE DARING YOUNG MAN ON THE FLYING TRAPEZE. 1941–1948. (ML 92)
  • First printing (1941)
• VICTOR HUGO. THE HUNCHBACK OF NOTRE DAME. 1941–1971. (ML 35)
  • First printing (1941)
• THE FEDERALIST. 1941–1970. (ML 139)
  • Declaration of Independence added** **(1947)
• FIVE GREAT MODERN IRISH PLAYS. 1941–1971. (ML 30)
  • First printing (1941)
• MARCEL PROUST. THE CAPTIVE. 1941–1970. (ML 120)
• JOHN STEINBECK. THE GRAPES OF WRATH. 1941–1959. (ML 148)
  • First printing (1941)
• PLATO. THE REPUBLIC. 1941– . (ML 153)
  • First printing (1941)
  • Title page reset; offset printing (c. 1967)
  • Reissue format (1982)
• LUDWIG BEMELMANS. MY WAR WITH THE UNITED STATES. 1941–1948. (ML 175)
  • First printing (1941)
• RING LARDNER. THE COLLECTED SHORT STORIES OF RING LARDNER. 1941–1956. (ML 211)
  • First printing (1941)
• BLAISE PASCAL. PENSÉES; THE PROVINCIAL LETTERS. 1941–1970. (ML 164)
  • First printing (1941)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1942

The war brought many changes to Random House. Klopfer, who was thirty-nine, applied for a commission in the Air Force. He was commissioned as a captain in May 1942 and left for training in California at the end of month. He was away from Random House until after the war. The war years were good ones for him. He was posted to England with the Eighth Air Force in October 1943 and served as an intelligence officer for a heavy bomber squadron—the job he wanted. When he stopped by Random House to say his final goodbyes before leaving for London, Cerf thought he looked “happier and more excited than I have ever seen him in my life before” (Cerf to Charles Allen Smart, 19 October 1943, Random House Collection, Columbia University Library). Early the following year he was promoted to major (Cerf, “Trade Winds,” Saturday Review of Literature, 12 February 1944, p. 19).

[more]

• CHARLES A. WARD. ORACLES OF NOSTRADAMUS. 1942–1971. (ML 81)
  • First printing (1942)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• STEPHEN CRANE. THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. 1942– . (ML 130)
• SINCLAIR LEWIS. BABBITT. 1942–1948. (ML 162)
  • First printing (1942)
• RICHARD WRIGHT. NATIVE SON. 1942–1957. (ML 221)
  • First printing (1942)
• TACITUS. THE COMPLETE WORKS OF TACITUS. 1942–1970. (ML 222)
• LILLIAN HELLMAN. FOUR PLAYS. 1942–1960. SIX PLAYS. 1960–1971. (ML 223)
  • First printing (1942)
  • Expanded edition: *Six Plays* (1960)
• ANDRÉ MAUROIS. DISRAELI. 1942–1970. (ML 46)
  • First printing (1942)
• DOROTHY PARKER. THE COLLECTED STORIES OF DOROTHY PARKER. 1942–1971. (ML 123)
  • First printing (1942)
• JOHN MILTON. COMPLETE POETRY AND SELECTED PROSE OF JOHN MILTON. 1942–1973. (ML 132)
  • First printing (1942)
  • Brooks introduction added (1950/51)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• GEORGE SANTAYANA. THE PHILOSOPHY OF SANTAYANA. 1942–1951. (ML 224)
  • First printing (1942)
• DONN BYRNE. MESSER MARCO POLO. 1942–1957. (ML 43)
• EDWARD BELLAMY. LOOKING BACKWARD. 1942–1971. (ML 22)
  • First printing (1942)
  • Shurter introduction added (1951)
• ELLIOT PAUL. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF A SPANISH TOWN. 1942–1953. (ML 225)
  • First printing (1943)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1943

By 1943 the impact of gasoline rationing and other wartime restrictions had reduced the ways in which people could spend leisure time away from home. They turned in large numbers to reading as an alternative. Demand for books was such that almost anything publishers brought out was snatched-up. Few publishers had ever encountered such demand for books and the experience was dazzling. But it also had drawbacks. “When you are able to sell any junk that you can get between covers,” Cerf commented, “it takes the kick out of putting over the really good numbers” (Cerf to Charles Allen Smart, 19 October 1943). Between 1942 and 1943, sales of ML books increased from $339,902 to $596,454.

[more]

• THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY. 1943–1970. (ML 226)
  • First printing (1943)
• DAPHNE DU MAURIER. REBECCA. 1943–1971. (ML 227)
• BENNETT A. CERF, ed. GREAT MODERN SHORT STORIES. 1943–1971. (ML 168)
• ARISTOTLE. POLITICS. 1943–1971. (ML 228)
  • First printing (1943)
  • Title page revised; offset printing (1965)
• EDITH WHARTON. THE AGE OF INNOCENCE. 1943–1971. (ML 229)
• WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. THE TRAGEDIES OF SHAKESPEARE. 1 vol. 1943–1947. (ML 1); 2 vols. 1947–1971. (ML 1, 1A; ML 2, 3)
  • First printing (1943)
  • Reprinted in 2 volumes (1947)
  • Ornamental headpieces added (1957)
• WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. THE COMEDIES OF SHAKESPEARE. 1 vol. 1943–1947. (ML 2); 2 vols. 1947–1971. (ML 2, 2A; ML 4, 5)
  • First printing (1943)
  • Reprinted in 2 volumes (1947)
  • Ornamental headpieces added (1956/57)
• WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. THE HISTORIES AND POEMS OF SHAKESPEARE. 1 vol. 1943–1947. (ML 3); 2 vols. 1947–1971. (ML 3, 3A; ML 6, 7)
  • First printing (1943)
  • Reprinted in 2 volumes (1947)
  • Ornamental headpieces added (1957)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1944

Three new ML titles published in spring 1944—Bergson, Creative Evolution (368), Kaufman and Hart, Six Plays (369), and Melville, Moby Dick (G65)—along with a number of backlist titles that were reprinted that spring, include the following statement on the verso of the title page:

[more]

• CLARENCE DAY. LIFE WITH FATHER. 1944–1955. (ML 230)
  • First printing (1944)
• HENRI BERGSON. CREATIVE EVOLUTION. 1944–1971. (ML 231)
  • First printing (1944)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• GEORGE S. KAUFMAN and MOSS HART. SIX PLAYS. 1944–1971. (ML 233)
  • First printing (1944)
• FRANCIS TURNER PALGRAVE, ed. THE GOLDEN TREASURY. 1944–1970. (ML 232)
• THOMAS JEFFERSON. THE LIFE AND SELECTED WRITINGS OF THOMAS JEFFERSON. 1944– . (ML 234)
  • First printing (1944)
  • Index added (c. 1951)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1978)
• SYLVESTRE C. WATKINS, ed. ANTHOLOGY OF AMERICAN NEGRO LITERATURE. 1944–1956. (ML 163)
  • First printing (1944)
• BENNETT A. CERF, ed. FAMOUS GHOST STORIES. 1944– . (ML 73)
  • First printing (1944)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• EDGAR SNOW. RED STAR OVER CHINA. 1944–1952. (ML 126)
  • First printing (1944)
  • Title page reset (1946)
• DOROTHY PARKER. THE COLLECTED POETRY OF DOROTHY PARKER. 1944– . (ML 237)
  • First printing (1944)
  • Title page reset (1945)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1945

During the first part of 1945, the lists of out-of-stock Modern Library titles got longer. In the later part of 1945, no Giants were available except the newly published Anthology of Famous English and American Poetry. There was no prospect of the Modern Library being completely in-stock again, Cerf wrote, for “a full year from now or even longer, depending entirely on the progress of the global war and the restoration of the normal paper supply in the book business” (Cerf to H. Hugh Herbert, 26 April, 1945).

[more]

• ALLAN NEVINS and HENRY STEELE COMMAGER. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. 1945– . (ML 235)
• O. HENRY. THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF O. HENRY. 1945– . (ML 4; ML 26)
• HARRY E. MAULE, ed. GREAT TALES OF THE AMERICAN WEST. 1945–1970. (ML 238)
• HOWARD FAST. THE UNVANQUISHED. 1945–1952. (ML 239)
• ROBERT N. LINSCOTT, ed. THE BEST AMERICAN HUMOROUS SHORT STORIES. 1945–1971. (ML 87)
• RICHARD HENRY DANA. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST. 1945–1970. (ML 236)
  • First printing (1945)
  • “Concluding Chapter” added (1954)
• WASHINGTON IRVING. SELECTED WRITINGS OF WASHINGTON IRVING. 1945–1970. (ML 240)
• GUY DE MAUPASSANT. THE BEST STORIES OF GUY DE MAUPASSANT. 1945–1971. (ML 98)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1946

Random House bought its own building at 457 Madison Avenue and moved in on 15 May. The firm had occupied rented offices at 20 East 57th Street since 1927 but had to move after International Business Machines (IBM) bought the building. The jackets of the first ML printings of The Confessions of Jean Jacques Rousseau (384) and Koestler’s Darkness at Noon (385) list the old address on the back panel. The Madison Avenue address appears on the back panel beginning with Hersey’s A Bell for Adano (386), published in April. The Madison Avenue building consisted of the north wing of a mansion originally built in 1885 for Henry Villard. The north wing (one of five separate units) was owned for many years by the Fahnestock family and had been purchased by Joseph P. Kennedy in 1944. Random House bought it from Kennedy for $420,000 and spent an additional $100,000 renovating and furnishing it.

[more]

• JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. THE CONFESSIONS OF JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU. 1946–1970. (ML 243)
  • First printing (1946)
• ARTHUR KOESTLER. DARKNESS AT NOON. 1946– . (ML 74)
  • First printing (1946)
• JOHN HERSEY. A BELL FOR ADANO. 1946–1955. (ML 16)
  • First printing (1946)
• SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE. THE ADVENTURES AND MEMOIRS OF SHERLOCK HOLMES. 1946– . (ML 206)
  • First printing (1946)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• OGDEN NASH. THE SELECTED VERSE OF OGDEN NASH. 1946–1968. (ML 191)
  • First printing (1946)
• HENRY JAMES. THE WINGS OF THE DOVE. 1946–1969. (ML 244)
• HONORÉ DE BALZAC. PÈRE GORIOT & EUGÉNIE GRANDET. 1946–1970. (ML 245)
• MARJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS. THE YEARLING. 1946–1954. (ML 246)
  • First printing (1946)
• JOHN N. BURK. THE LIFE AND WORKS OF BEETHOVEN. 1946–1971. (ML 241)
  • First printing (1946)
  • List of phonograph records omitted; index repaginated (1954)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• ROBERT FROST. THE POEMS OF ROBERT FROST. 1946–1963. (ML 242)
  • First printing (1946)
• WILLIAM FAULKNER. THE SOUND AND THE FURY & AS I LAY DYING. 1946–1966. (ML 187)
  • First printing (1946)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1947

The Random House editorial staff increased in size after the war. Cerf had already lured Robert Linscott away from Houghton Mifflin in 1944. Frank Taylor and Albert Erskine joined the editorial staff in 1947 after becoming dissatisfied at Reynal & Hitchcock. Saxe Commins, one of the great editors of his era, remained editor in chief of the Modern Library. Although officially in charge of the series at this period, judging from evidence in the Random House archives, his involvement was small.

[more]

• S. J. PERELMAN. THE BEST OF S. J. PERELMAN. 1947–1970. (ML 247)
  • First printing (1947)
• ARISTOTLE. INTRODUCTION TO ARISTOTLE. 1947–1971. (ML 248)
  • First printing (1947)
• ERSKINE CALDWELL. TOBACCO ROAD. 1947–1969. (ML 249)
  • First printing (1947)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969)
• BRET HARTE. THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF BRET HARTE. 1947–1971. (ML 250)
  • First printing (1947)
• ANTHONY TROLLOPE. THE EUSTACE DIAMONDS. 1947–1959. (ML 251)
  • First printing (1947)
• SINCLAIR LEWIS. DODSWORTH. 1947–1970. (ML 252)
• GEORGE MEREDITH. THE EGOIST. 1947–1970. (ML 253)
• GEORGE R. STEWART. STORM. 1947–1971. (ML 254)
• HERODOTUS. THE PERSIAN WARS. 1947–1970. (ML 255)
• RUMER GODDEN. BLACK NARCISSUS. 1947–1954. (ML 256)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1948

Harcourt, Brace & Co. terminated the reprint contracts for all of its titles in the ML when it launched Harbrace Modern Classics, a series of full-sized hardbound reprints which appears to have been created primarily for the textbook and library markets. The titles affected were Dorothy Canfield, The Deepening Stream; E. M. Forster, A Passage to India; Sinclair Lewis, Arrowsmith, Babbitt, and Dodsworth; Katherine Anne Porter, Flowering Judas; Lytton Strachey, Eminent Victorians; and Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway and To the Lighthouse. A Passage to India, Babbitt, Mrs. Dalloway, and To the Lighthbouse were discontinued between fall 1948 and 1949 as existing stocks of the books were exhausted. Flowering Judas and Arrowsmith were discontinued between fall 1950 and fall 1952. The other titles appear to have been reprieved, and Porter’s Flowering Judas, which Harcourt, Brace decided not to include in the new series, was restored to the ML in spring 1953.

[more]

• ALEXANDER POPE. SELECTED WORKS. 1948–1970. (ML 257)
• CHARLES JACKSON. THE LOST WEEKEND. 1948–1950. (ML 258)
• SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS. INTRODUCTION TO SAINT THOMAS AQUINAS. 1948–1971. (ML 259)
• MARCEL PROUST. THE SWEET CHEAT GONE. 1948–1971. (ML 260)
• HARRIET BEECHER STOWE. UNCLE TOM’S CABIN. 1948–1971; 1985–1991. (ML 261)
• EMILY DICKINSON. SELECTED POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON. 1948– . (ML 25)
• DANIEL DEFOE. ROBINSON CRUSOE & A JOURNAL OF THE PLAGUE YEAR. 1948–1970. (ML 92)
  • First printing (1948)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• WILLIAM ROSE BENÉT and NORMAN COUSINS, eds. THE POETRY OF FREEDOM. 1948–1954. (ML 175)
  • First printing (1948)
• LAOTSE. THE WISDOM OF LAOTSE. 1948– . (ML 262)
  • First printing (1948)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1979)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1949

The postwar history of the Modern Library can be regarded as dating from the beginning of 1949. That era of the ML’s history was shaped by two major developments: the continuing expansion and consolidation of the paperback revolution and the growth in college enrollments that increased the importance of the college market.

[more]

• MARK TWAIN. A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN KING ARTHUR’S COURT. 1949–1970. (ML 162)
  • First printing (1949)
• FRANCIS R. B. GODOLPHIN, ed. THE LATIN POETS. 1949–1969. (ML 217)
  • First printing (1949)
• SAINT AUGUSTINE. THE CONFESSIONS OF SAINT AUGUSTINE. 1949–1970. (ML 263)
  • First printing (1949)
  • Title page partially reset (1954)
• JANE AUSTEN. PRIDE AND PREJUDICE; SENSE AND SENSIBILITY. 1949–1970. (ML 264)
  • First printing (1949)
  • Daiches introduction added (1950?)
• KATHERINE ANNE PORTER. PALE HORSE, PALE RIDER. 1949–1970. (ML 45)
  • First printing (1949)
• MONTAIGNE. SELECTED ESSAYS. 1949–1970. (ML 218)
  • First printing (1949)
  • Title page corrected (early 1950s)
• LORD BYRON. DON JUAN. 1949–1970; 1984– . (ML 24)
• FRANCIS HACKETT. THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF HENRY THE EIGHTH. 1949–1969. (ML 265)
  • First printing (1949)
• IMMANUEL KANT. THE PHILOSOPHY OF KANT. 1949– . (ML 266)
  • First printing (1949)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer (late 1960s)
  • Reissue format (1978)
• FRANCIS PARKMAN. THE OREGON TRAIL. 1949–1969. (ML 267)
  • First printing (1949)
• HOWARD HAYCRAFT, ed. FOURTEEN GREAT DETECTIVE STORIES. 1949–1970. (ML 144)
  • First printing (1949)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1950

In 1950 Random House launched a series for classroom use, Modern Library College Editions. All of the early titles were taken from the regular Modern Library series. They were issued in paper covers and sold initially at sixty-five cents a copy—sixty cents less than regular Modern Library books. To enhance their usefulness as college texts, they were issued with new introductions commissioned from and directed toward the academic community. The authors of the new introductions were a distinguished group. The forty-one titles that inaugurated the new series had introductions by such figures as Eric Bentley, Clenath Brooks, E.K. Brown, David Daiches, Bergen Evans, Francis Fergusson, Royal A. Gettmann, Gilbert Highet, Herbert J. Muller, Gordon N. Ray, Mark Schorer, Henri Troyat, Mark Van Doren, Edward Wagenknecht, and Morton Dauwen Zabel. The new introductions were subsequently included in regular Modern Library printings as well.

[more]

• SIGMUND FREUD. THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS. 1950– . (ML 96)
  • First printing (1950)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format with title page reset; offset printing (1978)
• WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. SELECTED POETRY. 1950–1971. (ML 268)
  • First printing (1950)
  • Title page reset; bibliography added (1951)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• HENRY JAMES. WASHINGTON SQUARE. 1950–1970. (ML 269)
  • First printing (1950)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM. CAKES AND ALE. 1950–1970. (ML 270)
  • First printing (1950)
• WILLIAM FAULKNER. LIGHT IN AUGUST. 1950– . (ML 88)
• SAMUEL RICHARDSON. CLARISSA. 1950–1971. (ML 10)
• LOUISA MAY ALCOTT. LITTLE WOMEN. 1950–1955. (ML 258)
  • First printing (1950)
• JOHN HENRY NEWMAN. APOLOGIA PRO VITA SUA. 1950–1970. (ML 113)
  • First printing (1950)
• RUDYARD KIPLING. KIM. 1950–1970. (ML 99)
  • First printing (1950)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1951

Modern Library College Editions, established in 1950, continued to grow during 1951. The series maintained close ties with the regular Modern Library series during this time. Most titles continued to be selected from the regular Modern Library series and adapted with new introductions for the college market. However, anthologies of works by Browning, Byron, Keats, and Shelley were compiled especially for Modern Library College Editions. The Keats and Shelley anthologies were also published in the regular Modern Library in spring 1951; the Browning and Byron volumes were added to the regular series in 1954.

[more]

• WILLIAM FAULKNER. ABSALOM, ABSALOM! 1951– . (ML 271)
  • First printing (1951)
  • Title page reset, offset printing (1964)
• CICERO. THE BASIC WORKS OF CICERO. 1951–1971. (ML 272)
  • First printing (1951)
• JOHN KEATS. THE COMPLETE POETRY AND SELECTED PROSE OF JOHN KEATS. 1951– . (ML 273)
  • First printing (1951)
• PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. THE SELECTED POETRY AND PROSE OF PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY. 1951–1973. (ML 274)
  • First printing (1951)
• JOSEPH CONRAD. NOSTROMO. 1951–1970; 1983– . (ML 275)
• WHITNEY J. OATES and EUGENE O’NEILL, JR., eds. SEVEN FAMOUS GREEK PLAYS. 1951–1970. (ML 158)
  • First printing (1951)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• WALT WHITMAN. LEAVES OF GRASS AND SELECTED PROSE. 1951–1971. (ML 97)
• SIX MODERN AMERICAN PLAYS. 1951–1977. SIX GREAT AMERICAN PLAYS. 1978– . (ML 276)
  • First printing (1951)
  • Title page and part titles reset; offset printing (1967)
• WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS. THE RISE OF SILAS LAPHAM. 1951–1970. (ML 277)
  • First printing (1951)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• MARCEL PROUST. THE PAST RECAPTURED. 1951–1971. (ML 278)
  • First printing (1951)
• SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. SELECTED POETRY AND PROSE OF COLERIDGE. 1951–1971. (ML 279)
  • First printing (1951)
• SAKI. THE SHORT STORIES OF SAKI. 1951– . (ML 280)
  • First printing (1951)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1977)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1952

Two emerging trends shaped directions for the Modern Library in 1952: growth in the quality paperback market and initiatives by publishers to discontinue contracts with the Modern Library for reprint permissions.

[more]

• JOHN DONNE. THE COMPLETE POETRY AND SELECTED PROSE OF JOHN DONNE. 1952– . (ML 12)
  • First printing (1952)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1977)
• ISAK DINESEN. OUT OF AFRICA. 1952–1971. (ML 23)
  • First printing (1952)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY PLAYS. 1952–1970. (ML 224)
  • First printing (1952)
• BUDD SCHULBERG. WHAT MAKES SAMMY RUN? 1952–1970. (ML 281)
  • First printing (1952)
• JAMES BOSWELL. THE LIFE OF SAMUEL JOHNSON. Abridged by Bergen Evans. 1952–1970. (ML 282)
• JAMES FENIMORE COOPER. THE PATHFINDER. 1952–1970. (ML 105)
  • First printing (1952)
• VICTOR LANGE, ed. GREAT GERMAN SHORT NOVELS AND STORIES. 1952–1974. (ML 108)
  • First printing (1952)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• FRANZ KAFKA. SELECTED SHORT STORIES OF FRANZ KAFKA. 1952–1969; 1977–1990. (ML 283)
  • First printing (1952)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1977)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1953

Three new series directed at the juvenile market were launched in 1953: Landmark Books, Allabout Books, and Gateway Books. The Landmark Books were phenomenally successful. By 1956 their sales reached 6,000,000 copies. They became a staple of the juvenile market, much as the Modern Library was a staple of the adult trade. In 1954, Cerf commented, “Our business gross continues to be fine, but more and more it’s the staples and Modern Library and Landmarks. The new novels are simply not selling at all” (Cerf to Klopfer, 15 September 1954).

[more]

• MOSES HADAS, ed. THE GREEK POETS. 1953–1969. (ML 203)
  • First printing (1953)
• MARGARET MEAD. COMING OF AGE IN SAMOA. 1953–1958. (ML 126)
  • First printing (1953)
• JOHN O’HARA. APPOINTMENT IN SAMARRA. 1953–1971. (ML 42)
  • First printing (1953)
• JOHN GUNTHER. DEATH BE NOT PROUD. 1953–1990. (ML 286)
  • First printing (1953)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1979)
• BERNARD SHAW. FOUR PLAYS. 1953– . (ML 19)
  • First printing (1953)
• ROBERT PENN WARREN. ALL THE KING’S MEN. 1953–1973. (ML 170)
  • First printing (1953)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer (1970/71)
• GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL. THE PHILOSOPHY OF HEGEL. 1953– . (ML 239)
• WILLIAM BLAKE. SELECTED POETRY AND PROSE OF WILLIAM BLAKE. 1953–1973. (ML 285)
  • First printing (1953)
• RESTORATION PLAYS. 1953–1970. (ML 287)
  • First printing (1953)
• EDGAR ALLAN POE. THE SELECTED POETRY AND PROSE OF EDGAR ALLAN POE. 1953– . (ML 82)
  • First printing (1953)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1954

In 1954, Random House entered into negotiations with Allen Lane, the founder and head of Penguin Books in England, to explore the possibility of Random House’s acquiring the American branch of the firm. Initially, Random House was attracted by the idea of obtaining rights for the Modern Library of a number of new translations commissioned for Penguin Classics, a distinguished and highly successful series that began in 1946. Several of the translations then used by the Modern Library had been criticized as outdated or faulty in other respects—Peter Motteaux’s 1700 translation, revised by John Ozell in 1719, of Cervantes’s Don Quixote; the Lang-Leaf-Myers translation of Iliad and Odyssey; Constance Garnett’s translation of Chekhov’s Plays; and anonymous translations of plays by Moliere and Ibsen. Penguin Classics had superior translations of these and other works.

[more]

• JACOB BURCKHARDT. THE CIVILIZATION OF THE RENAISSANCE IN ITALY. 1954–1971; 1980–1991. (ML 32)
  • First printing (1954)
  • Reissue format (1980)
• LORD BYRON. THE SELECTED POETRY OF LORD BYRON. 1954–1973. (ML 195)
• SAMUEL HOFFENSTEIN. THE COMPLETE POETRY OF SAMUEL HOFFENSTEIN. 1954–1958. (ML 225)
  • First printing (1954)
• JAMES MORIER. THE ADVENTURES OF HAJJI BABA OF ISPAHAN. 1954–1959. (ML 289)
  • First printing (1954)
• ROBERT BROWNING. SELECTED POETRY OF ROBERT BROWNING. 1954–1971. (ML 198)
  • First printing (1954)
• ARISTOTLE. RHETORIC; POETICS. 1954– . (ML 246)
  • First printing (1954)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1977)
• DAVID H. GREENE, ed. AN ANTHOLOGY OF IRISH LITERATURE. 1954–1970. (ML 288)
• EUDORA WELTY. SELECTED STORIES OF EUDORA WELTY. 1954– . (ML 290)
  • First printing (1954)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ in. format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1977)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1955

The Modern Library’s printers, Parkway Printing Co. in New York City, opened an offset printing department in early January (Parkway to Jess Stein, December 1954). Before 1955 the small number of Modern Library titles that were printed by offset lithography had to be printed by a firm that specialized in offset lithography. Parkway Printing had been acquired by Wolff Bindery—which allowed the Modern Library to contract with one company for all of its printing and binding.

[more]

• CLARA THOMPSON, MILTON MAZER, and EARL WITENBERG, eds. AN OUTLINE OF PSYCHOANALYSIS. Rev. ed. 1955–1971. (ML 66)
• WILLIAM FAULKNER. GO DOWN, MOSES. 1955– . (ML 175)
  • First printing (1955)
  • Title page reset; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• DAVID McCORD, ed. WHAT CHEER. 1955–1959. (ML 190)
  • First printing (1955)
• FRANCIS BACON. SELECTED WRITINGS OF FRANCIS BACON. 1955–1971. (ML 256)
  • First printing (1955)
• OLIVER GOLDSMITH. THE VICAR OF WAKEFIELD AND OTHER WRITINGS. 1955–1971. (ML 291)
  • First printing (1955)
• NEW VOICES IN THE AMERICAN THEATRE. 1955– . (ML 258)
  • First printing (1955)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• GEORGE SANTAYANA. THE SENSE OF BEAUTY. 1955–1970. (ML 292)
  • First printing (1955)
• FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY. THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF DOSTOEVSKY. 1955–1971; 1979– . (ML 293)
  • First printing (1955)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1979)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1956

The discussions with Allen Lane that began in 1954 about the possibility of Random House acquiring the American branch of Penguin Books resumed in the summer of 1956. A Random House memorandum in July outlined a possible basis for the purchase of Penguin Books for the American market. This included agreements to maintain the Penguin imprint in America, an equitable plan for taking over all existing Penguin obligations, and the possible abandonment of the Modern Library Paperback series (Random House memorandum, 12 July 1956). In August, Cerf told Lane: “We are very serious about pursuing exploratory talks on the situation and, in fact, will hold up all decisions on our own paper-back plans until we know just where this whole matter stands” (Cerf to Lane, 20 August 1956). But Lane was not willing to negotiate at this point. However, Random House remained interested. In 1958, Klopfer wrote Lane:

[more]

• HENRY JAMES. THE BOSTONIANS. 1956–1970. (ML 16)
• VOLTAIRE. CANDIDE AND OTHER WRITINGS. 1956–1971; 1985– . (ML 47)
  • First printing (1956)
  • Reissue format (1985)
• ANGEL FLORES, ed. GREAT SPANISH STORIES. 1956–1970. (ML 129)
  • First printing (1956)
• ALFRED LORD TENNYSON. SELECTED POETRY OF TENNYSON. 1956–1970. (ML 230)
  • First printing (1956)
  • Title page reset; bibliography updated (1967)
• BERNARD SHAW. SAINT JOAN, MAJOR BARBARA, ANDROCLES AND THE LION. 1956– . (ML 294)
  • First printing (1956)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1979)
• ALDOUS HUXLEY. BRAVE NEW WORLD. 1956–1967. (ML 48)
  • First printing (1956)
• SHOLOM ALEICHEM. SELECTED STORIES OF SHOLOM ALEICHEM. 1956–1973. (ML 145)
  • First printing (1956)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; offset printing (c. 1970)
• ANTON CHEKHOV. BEST PLAYS. 1956–1986. (ML 171)
  • First printing (1956)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1978)
• ALFRED ZIMMERN. THE GREEK COMMONWEALTH. 1956–1970. (ML 207)
  • First printing (1956)
• JOHN O’HARA. SELECTED SHORT STORIES OF JOHN O’HARA. 1956–1971; 1980–1990. (ML 211)
  • First printing (1956)
  • Reissue format; offset printing (1980)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1957

As costs rose steadily in the years following the war, retail prices inevitably had to be increased. Publishers at this period, however, feared adverse public reaction to higher prices and generally held off raising prices until the inroads into their profit margins left them no alternative. The $1.25 price for the regular Modern Library volumes remained in effect for seven years, from April 1947 through March 1954. It increased to $1.45 on 1 April 1954. Less than three years later, on 1 January 1957, the price rose again, this time to $1.65.

[more]

• HENRIK IBSEN. SIX PLAYS. 1957–1973. (ML 6; ML 305)
• W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM. THE BEST SHORT STORIES OF W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM. 1957– . (ML 14)
  • First printing (1957)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
• H. RIDER HAGGARD. SHE & KING SOLOMON’S MINES. 1957–1970. (ML 163)
  • First printing (1957)
• JULIUS CAESAR. THE GALLIC WAR AND OTHER WRITINGS. 1957–1970. (ML 295)
  • First printing (1957)
• JAMES A. MICHENER. SELECTED WRITINGS OF JAMES A. MICHENER. 1957–1986. (ML 296)
  • First printing (1957)
  • Title-page ornament omitted (1960)
  • Reissue format (1978)
• MOLIÈRE. EIGHT PLAYS. 1957–1971. (ML 78)
  • First printing (1957)
• JAMES THURBER. THE THURBER CARNIVAL. 1957– . (ML 85)
  • First printing (1957)
  • Reissue format (1979)
• ROGER SHERMAN LOOMIS and LAURA HIBBARD LEWIS, eds. MEDIEVAL ROMANCES. 1957–1971. (ML 133)
  • First printing (1957)
  • Title page revised (1962)
• LEONARDO DA VINCI. THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI. 1957–1970. (ML 156)
  • First printing (1957)
• SINCLAIR LEWIS. CASS TIMBERLANE. 1957–1970. (ML 221)
  • First printing (1957)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1958

In 1958, about a year and a half before Random House acquired Alfred A. Knopf, an event occurred which would have a profound influence on the Modern Library’s subsequent history. That was the arrival of Jason Epstein as a Random House editor. Epstein had started Anchor Books at Doubleday five years before, at the age of twenty-five. Anchor Books pioneered the quality paperback and was widely imitated by other publishers. Epstein acquired a reputation, at an early age, as a brilliant, innovative, ambitious, and successful figure in the publishing world. All of these qualities appealed strongly to Cerf, who also admired Epstein’s aggressiveness. Others found him arrogant and difficult to work with.

[more]

• RENÉ DESCARTES. PHILOSOPHICAL WRITINGS. 1958– . (ML 43)
• DAMON RUNYON. A TREASURY OF DAMON RUNYON. 1958–1986. (ML 53)
• JONATHAN SWIFT. GULLIVER’S TRAVELS AND OTHER WRITINGS. 1958–1974; 1979–1991. (ML 100)
• IRWIN SHAW. THE YOUNG LIONS. 1958–1971; 1982–1990. (ML 112)
• J. D. SALINGER. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. 1958–1963. (ML 90)
• P. G. WODEHOUSE. SELECTED STORIES. 1958–1971. (ML 126)
• IMMANUEL KANT. CRITIQUE OF PURE REASON. 1958–1970. (ML 297)
• ANNE FRANK. THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL. 1958– . (ML 298)
• HONORÉ DE BALZAC. COUSIN BETTE. 1958–1971. (ML 299)

MODERN LIBRARY SERIES 1959

During the early 1950s Modern Library sales were lower than they had been immediately after the war, but by the mid-1950s they had begun a steady upward climb. As the 1950s ended, the publishing industry was on the verge of a period of tremendous growth and change. By 1959, publishers whose stock was traded on Wall Street included American Book Company, Bobbs-Merrill, Book-of-the-Month Club, Holt, Houghton Mifflin, Macmillan, McGraw-Hill, Prentice-Hall, Rand McNally, and World (PW, 12 October 1959, p. 27).

[more]

• JESS STEIN, ed. THE MODERN LIBRARY DICTIONARY. 1959–1970. (ML 4; ML 1)
• W. H. AUDEN. SELECTED POETRY OF W. H. AUDEN. 1959–1971. 2nd ed. 1972– . (ML 160)
• RICHARD RODGERS and OSCAR HAMMERSTEIN II. SIX PLAYS. 1959– . (ML 200)
  • First printing (1959)
• JEROME WEIDMAN. I CAN GET IT FOR YOU WHOLESALE. 1959–1971. (ML 225)
  • First printing (1959)
• C. G. JUNG. THE BASIC WRITINGS OF C. G. JUNG. 1959– . (ML 300)
  • First printing (1959)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1977)
• ROBERT BIERSTEDT, ed. THE MAKING OF SOCIETY. Rev. ed. 1959–1974. (ML 183)
  • First printing (1959)
• GIORGIO VASARI. LIVES OF THE MOST EMINENT PAINTERS, SCULPTORS, AND ARCHITECTS. 1959–1970. (ML 190)
  • First printing (1959)
• J. D. SALINGER. NINE STORIES. 1959–1964. (ML 301)
  • First printing (1959)
  • Decorative rules restored (1963)
• JOHN TASKER HOWARD. THE WORLD’S GREAT OPERAS. 1959–1970. (ML 302)
  • First printing (1959)
• SøREN KIERKEGAARD. A KIERKEGAARD ANTHOLOGY. 1959– . (ML 303)
  • First printing (1959)
  • Title page with Fujita torchbearer; 7½ inch format (1969/70)
  • Reissue format (1978)